So you decided to piously lecture about not speaking ill of the dead without knowing anything about what they were speaking ill of him *for*? Just assumed they must be wrong or unreasonable?

Ben Goldacre@bengoldacre.bsky.social · yesterday

Apologies: I’m not online much, I haven't paid any attention to Rod Liddle for a long time, I didn't really know his extremes. I do now: I wouldn’t have posted if I'd known. I’ve seen death of difficult people up close (and its impact on others): that’s the only reason it was on my mind as an issue.

It's this kind of ever-so-polite "respectfulness" and "civility" which is used to inform the disabled, minorities, women, & everyone who has been harmed by people who actively work to make the world more hostile and dangerous to them, that their lives aren't as important as "but I liked the guy."

Ben Goldacre@bengoldacre.bsky.social · 2d ago

Sad to see people posting on social media negatively about Rod Liddle, who died yesterday. If I have disagreed with you very strongly in life - and you die - I hope I'll be either silent, or kind.

It's no surprise I disagreed with his opinions, but he was actually that bad at writing that it was painfully clear that anyone who liked his work simply agreed with those opinions - or hated the people they'd annoy - and thus found it perfectly delicious someone had finally typed them up.

Haters focusing on Liddle's violence toward his pregnant partner, his galloping racism, or his repeated defences of paedophilia, should remember to mention he was also one of the worst writers to ever do it. A calorie-free hack of the first water. Just absolute dogshit, back to front.

Every three days or so, the long-range forecast shows reasonable chances of rain for a couple of days in four days’ time. Over about 24 hours they move a day or two further away; within 48 hours, they’re gone completely. Then the cycle repeats. Never raining again, is it?

Another example where the explanation for these people being *extremely* angry and relentlessly seeking publicity for their wacky ideas is: they’re just right wing cranks. They have constructed elaborate window dressing for themselves but they really are just quite nasty, spiteful reactionaries.

To have once such gross and incriminating incident on one’s record ought to have been career- and reputation-ending; to have *also* assaulted your pregnant girlfriend *and* consistently been a vile racist is quite the trifecta, notwithstanding any number of other perfectly valid complaints

Mic Wright@brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 2d ago

I will remember Rod Liddle for the fact that the lawyer who checked my book before publication had no issue with me writing that Liddle couldn’t be a teacher because he’d have had sex with the students. Why? Because Liddle wrote it in a national magazine.

Nope, it was poor. For the reasons here, because of its honking misrepresentation of what transphobia and the “gender critical” movement are, and because, ultimately, it was written by someone so far removed from the time and the world he was writing about as to just not get it at all.

Liam Thorp@liamthorp.bsky.social · 4d ago

Bit late to it but just finished Tip Toe from Russell T Davies. Am I the only one that really struggled with this? Found it really oddly jarring, badly scripted, totally implausible in parts (the ending especially) and just a bit rubbish. Surprised because of how great his other stuff has been

While we’re on the subject of people who combine good work with major errors, bad-faith criticism with legitimate concerns, and stories ranging from the inconsistent to the implausible to the entirely unverifiable… What happened to Jack Monroe?

Iain Alexander@iaingalexander.bsky.social · 4d ago

An excellent piece of “show, don’t tell” reporting on a properly mad story, out of which nobody involved comes well

An excellent piece of “show, don’t tell” reporting on a properly mad story, out of which nobody involved comes well

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 4d ago

Playbooks, plagiarism and a pig’s head: new claims surrounding a star Cambridge professor

Great to see Ollie Sykes back in the Surrey XI. Strong feeling that the lad is going to score a LOT of runs for England over the years. Hope he gets a run in the red ball side too, once the Championship is back for its final stretch.

Surrey Cricket@kiaoval.com · 5d ago

Batting first in Bristol after Glos win the toss 🏏 Surrey debut for Hishaam Khan as Ollie Sykes and Ralphie Albert also come into the XI 🙌 🖤 | #OneDayCup

Probably perfectly valid commercial and logistical reasons why neither party would do it, but “Live at the Soho Downstairs” would slap in a late slot on Channel 4.

Mark Watson@watsoncomedian.bsky.social · 7d ago

I should add, Apollo was a very glossy, expensively shot and produced take on 'club comedy', made in a huge theatre. If money's the issue, it would be easy to make a very good lo-fi stand-up show for absolute peanuts. It's been done before. But people will be pitching that in vain until 2078.

It would be better if the Green Party leader was not an inveterate poaster with terrible judgement and poor impulse control. I invite you to place that issue appropriately within a list of Britain’s thousand most pressing political problems.

I would not wear an LOL Nigel to the Slicey-Boi Party* t-shirt myself but I would urge people to ask whether “people understand that bad taste t-shirt is dumb joke” or “this PM’s policies can literally be tallied by excess deaths, running well into six figures” is the more pressing concern.

Friends fear he has lost the 6 Music Dad demographic

Mic Wright@brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · last wk.

Richard Osman does his long lecture about something thing on the latest episode of The Rest Is Entertainment in which he confidently asserts that Creep was on The Bends. His thoughts on Nirvana’s In Utero are equally illuminating.

I'd leave the cat but euthanise his entire fanclub

David Klemperer@dmk1793.bsky.social · 2w ago

Larry the Cat embodies much of what is wrong in public life. He should be euthanised

Yes! As someone who posts semi-regularly about how many ills of the political-media ecosystem can be seen writ large in the twee obsession with That Cat, I am pleased to have found a fellow traveller. Join our cult.

David Klemperer@dmk1793.bsky.social · 2w ago

Larry the Cat embodies much of what is wrong in public life. He should be euthanised

Honestly? Fuck this. The bit has gone on far too long.

London & Southeast🔅@thesnowdreamer.bsky.social · 2w ago

Unclear whether it will constitute as technical heatwave but increasing confidence the first half of next week is likely to see return of hot weather. Peaking on next Wednesday. I can see peaks exceeding 32C (90F) further SE.… (1/2)

Does this… maybe… at least partially explain… certain… thematic preoccupations…?

Iain Alexander@iaingalexander.bsky.social · 2w ago

Okay so I’ve just found out about Christopher Nolan’s older brother Matthew “Matthew McCall-Oppenheimer” Nolan, the suspected contract killer and fugitive, and my melon is well and truly twisted.

Okay so I’ve just found out about Christopher Nolan’s older brother Matthew “Matthew McCall-Oppenheimer” Nolan, the suspected contract killer and fugitive, and my melon is well and truly twisted.

Really useful thread overall re: OpenAI/HuggingFace “hack” story, but this is probably the crux of why it’s not quite what it’s being portrayed as.

+ Just a reversal of a previous Labour change, not making anything any better than it was pre-Starmer. + Does nothing to address the brutal unreliability or outright non-existence of bus services in rural areas (or, really, just outside cities and large towns).

Moose Malloy@spooksmalloy.bsky.social · 2w ago

This is the perfect Labour policy - it looks good until you look at it for more then 5 seconds and realise it actually won't help anyone who uses the buses more then once a week (they will already have weekly or season tickets) but it sounds good to Guardian readers who haven't used a bus in years

Wholehearted endorsement for this five-star review

Jon Snow: A Last Big Story review – the finest swan song you could hope for

This documentary about the journalist’s Alzheimer’s soon takes a turn, as he hears of an unreported mining disaster and goes on the hunt for truth. It’s a dignified tale of a courageous, compassionate...

theguardian.com

Iain Alexander@iaingalexander.bsky.social · 2w ago

Finally summoned it up to watch JON SNOW: A LAST BIG STORY. Sad to see the memory dimmed, but affirming to see the character and wit so very much alive even before the big turn. Wonderful filmmaking. The love and care and protection — but also freedom to pursue his passion — he was shown were superb

Finally summoned it up to watch JON SNOW: A LAST BIG STORY. Sad to see the memory dimmed, but affirming to see the character and wit so very much alive even before the big turn. Wonderful filmmaking. The love and care and protection — but also freedom to pursue his passion — he was shown were superb

Always kind of feels like Keegan isn’t seen as “ours” as much as other LFC legends because of the iconic achievements and personality attached to his involvement with other clubs after his departure, but what a player, and what a man. A Superstar through and through.

He didn’t end it. I’m not knocking the ambition - it was a huge, huge issue at the time, but unfortunately it still is. Numbers in GM are higher than they were in 2016, when he ran for mayor, and getting on for where they were when he was elected

Jennifer Williams@jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2w ago

I honestly feel like I’m in Groundhog Day right now - ending rough sleeping - hope this means I wake up tomorrow ten years younger

Commentators saying that Burnham’s plans are “ambitious” in the same tone that Sir Humphrey used the word “courageous” in Yes, Minister.

The third-place playoff is a jumped-up friendly and goals in it should not count towards the Golden Boot or World Cup career records. Play it as an exhibition so more people get to attend the World Cup, sure, but don’t pretend a match between losers counts. Once you’re out, you’re out.

“We got too passive after we scored,” says The Tooch. Buddy, do you think that passivity just manifested from the cosmos, or did it have something to do with your cowardly substitutions and change of shape/approach?